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"This is bad"

In the past few months we've seen several UK based developers go into liquidation/close down, the latest being Mucky Foot who made Startopia.

Quote:
"Mucky Foot’s closure is the latest in a recent string of studio shut downs which has also seen Computer Artworks, Lost Toys, Hot Gen, Silicon Dreams and Attention to Detail all close their doors."

Now, if well profile developers such as Computer Artworks (who made The Thing) could shut down, there isn't much hope for the industry in general is there? It looks as if more and more games will be made in house by publishers, and even then there's no guarantee that profit will be made.

We hear in the news that games achieve quite high revenue intakes, but what they fail to mention are the costs that are causing small dev houses to struggle to break even. Hell, even Pivotal Games had to be bought out by their publisher Sci to help them out.

I know that these low budget games will never be as attractive as the full on "big gun" games, just as Chomp bars will never be as attractive as the more sophisticated Mars and Crunchies, but sometimes you don't have a whole 40p to spend, and even when you do, you might not want to spend all of it on a sweet, or you might think that it's a better value for money to get 4 Chomps for 10p each.

These cheapo games won't share the same popularity or incomes of the big hitters, but they won't cost so much to make and won't be such a risk to produce.
The budget market is a much more stable one.
Sure, you're a lot less likely to make it REALLY big, but have a better chance of making a steady, stable profit.

Although some engine liceinses are expensive, some companies have set themselves up, dedicated to mass producing and mass selling their devellopment packages so they can keep it cheap and still make money.
I think you can buy one for £100.

Besides, one of the hardest things about these game engines in making them super-efficient with VERY complex code in order to make the most of the processing power. With the new generation of systems, this will hardly be necessary for most games.

Sure, SOME games will be able to find a good use for all that excess power (see my topic below, the "Blatant GAD Attempt" one), and there will always be a market for those high-budget games, but most games will only need a fraction of it, and for that purpose, these pre-prepared engines will more than suffice.

I agree with the small game concept, and though there will always be buyers, they will never compete with the big guns - after all, the mass public will always go for a snazzy action title with special effects or high end production values over a arcadey game any way.

And on the issue of purchasing 3rd party engines - these can be VERY expensive.

Now technology and software is extremely develloped, I expect game devellopment costs to drop dramatically.

Remember when Mario 64 was released as the first fully 3D platformer?
It was state of the art and only the most advanced hardware/programming techniques could handle it.

Now you could buy a package for about £30 that lets you make complete 3D games by pointing and clicking rather than intense programming.
I think that companies will buy their 3D engines from 3rd parties and concentrate on the gameplay and artwork aspects.

With the new specs of the next gen machines, these cheaply done games will still be hugely more slick and sublime than the cream of the current crop, but with the engine devellopment cut out or minimised, the companies will be able to concentrate on making more levels or trying new ideas.

This might even allow games to be cheaper than before.

The REALLY big companies will still try and make the most efficient code to suit their hardware (like Nintendo and EA) but the smaller ones will be able to make relatively simple games where they can afford to be more adventurous because the devellopment costs will be much smaller.

And there will be a slightly noticable difference between the pre-done game engines and the built from scratch games, but only a nit-picker would really care.

So there's a great future for small house devellopers, they just need to evolve.

Unshameful *pop*

Er, wanted to add some more but accidently clicked on post.

Anyway, what should happen is to follow the French.

Quote:

"In July, the French Government announced its plan to offer four million euros (£2.9m) to help aspiring game developers turn their ideas into reality."

Now, if this were to happen (highly unlikely tough, I haven't seen the Minister of Arts and Culture do f*** all), this would help UK small dev groups a lot.

Going back to the public assumption that programmers are well paid and everything is fine and dandy, this was demosntrated a few months ago when out business studies lecturer asked us what we wanted to do in the future. When I said work in the games industry as a programmer, someone said,

"You get paid bucketloads for that, don't you?"

probably upon hearing the news that millions of revenue are created from games sales. What they fail to notice is that costs are also increasing, sometimes at a higher rate than revenues.

In the past few months we've seen several UK based developers go into liquidation/close down, the latest being Mucky Foot who made Startopia.

Quote:
"Mucky Foot’s closure is the latest in a recent string of studio shut downs which has also seen Computer Artworks, Lost Toys, Hot Gen, Silicon Dreams and Attention to Detail all close their doors."

Now, if well profile developers such as Computer Artworks (who made The Thing) could shut down, there isn't much hope for the industry in general is there? It looks as if more and more games will be made in house by publishers, and even then there's no guarantee that profit will be made.

We hear in the news that games achieve quite high revenue intakes, but what they fail to mention are the costs that are causing small dev houses to struggle to break even. Hell, even Pivotal Games had to be bought out by their publisher Sci to help them out.